Description

CAMDEN

TQ3081SW SHAFTESBURY AVENUE
798-1/105/1428 (East side)
04/11/94 No.235
Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church
(Formerly Listed as:
SHAFTESBURY AVENUE
Central Baptist Church)

GV II

Baptist church. c1845-8. By John Gibson. For Sir Samuel Morton
Peto on speculation because he considered a church was needed
in the area. Grey brick with stone dressings and vertical
bands. Early Italian Gothic style. Rectangular plan.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and attics. West front of 3 windows
flanked by rectangular towers. 3 central moulded arch
entrances above which a Lombardic frieze and large rose window
flanked by 2 round-arched windows. Deep Lombardic frieze
beneath arcaded attic windows crowned by a balustrade. 4-stage
towers with vertical bands and small windows; 4th stages are
belfries with round-arched openings, friezes and cornices
having trefoil enriched dies at angles; formerly with short
spires, removed due to war damage.
INTERIOR: horseshoe-shaped auditorium with curved gallery
supported on polygonal cast-iron columns; the gallery with
arcaded-patterned front. Decorated square columns rise from
gallery to roof. Good curved pews, and stained glass
incorporating texts. Balcony reached by winding wrought-iron
stairs in angles either side of narrow central entrance foyer
refitted c1960s.
HISTORICAL NOTE: this was the first Baptist chapel to stand
prominently on a London street, looking like a "church",
reflecting the improved status of Victorian dissenters. Legend
records that when Peto sought to lease the land, the First
Commissioner of Woods & Forests told him that Nonconformist
chapels were too dull: he liked a church with a spire. "A
spire?" exclaimed Peto, "My Lord, we shall have two!".

Listing NGR: TQ3007881386

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q27083514

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)